Posts by lford

Sometimes shoppers who are planning a road trip like to plan a string of “route shops”. This involves picking up shops along the route you plan to travel to complete while you are in those areas. To make route shops work, you’ll need to plan ahead and try to coordinate shop appointments to make sure the day runs smoothly. Below are a few steps you can take to help ensure your route is efficient and successful.

First of all, check to make sure all the shops you requested are actually assigned to you as the primary shopper. Sometimes shops show on your list, but you are listed as the backup shopper. Be careful when you apply as you may have applied to be a backup shopper. Since route shops are time sensitive, you’ll want to avoid being listed as the backup on shops outside your normal shopping area.

Next, plan your route to see which shops are nearer to each other and try to coordinate appointments that will make sense for the planned route. You would not want to travel back and forth from one area to another if you have shops to do in different areas of town. Put the addresses in your GPS and try the most efficient route to save time and gas.

Of course, you may have to juggle times with the agent’s schedule, but try to make it fit your schedule as much as possible. Some locations have limited office hours, so if you miss your appointment, you may lose your shop. Some companies will not give you the extra week to complete a shop.

After you have done all your planning, you are ready for your day of shopping. Pack a snack, water and a note pad and you can be off on a rewarding day of mystery shopping. Take lots of notes and keep track of your time. That way, you will have fun and you will make money in the meantime.

The phone portion of the mystery shop is a vital first step. You typically cannot complete the onsite visit until you have made the phone call. The call allows the leasing agent to get to know you and your needs better and set up your visit. It also allows them the opportunity to give a sales preview of what their community has to offer, so it is an important tool in the overall performance evaluation.

Target Agent

If you have a target agent, make sure to pay close attention to the name of the person as you make your calls. Often, the leasing agent is so used to saying their opening greeting, they may say their name faster than you were prepared to hear.

If the person answering is not your target agent, find a reason to get off the phone quickly without raising suspicion.

No Target Agent (meaning Anyone)

If you do not have a target agent, you can begin the shop with whoever answers the phone. This is one of the easiest types of shops to complete.

The leasing agent should invite you for a tour during your phone conversation. Accept this invitation and be prepared to shop this same person onsite. If the call is nearing the end and you have not received an invitation, let them know you’d like to stop by that day to have a look and pick up information.

Anyone Except (Name)

This means that any leasing agent who answers the phone other than the person specified NOT to shop will become your target agent. If the person you are to avoid answers, make an excuse to get off the phone.

Overall, do not complete an onsite visit before you complete the phone call unless otherwise directed in the special instructions for the shop. It is important that the leasing agent exhibits a warm personality, inquire about your needs in a new apartment home and offer you the opportunity to tour their community. Making the telephone call is their first opportunity to do this!

Since most shoppers want more work, we can unintentionally adopt a “quantity versus quality” mentality. A shopper can become overwhelmed by assigning themselves numerous jobs to make the most money each month and this can result in submitting incomplete or lower quality evaluations. Be careful not to take on more shops than you can reasonably devote your time to.

Remember, every time you submit a mystery shopping report, expect a review for accurate content and grammar from several customer service representatives before the evaluation is forwarded to the requested company. Be careful not to underestimate this fact. The quality control reviews by customer service representatives can affect the number of shops a shopper may have access to in the future.

If you are a regular shopper with a company, customer service representatives might record comments about your performance in your shopper file. If you want more and higher priced shops, remember to submit only accurate, grammatically correct reports. You should also be mindful to include pertinent details in your reporting. Adding a couple more sentences with details in your shopping narrative can distinguish you as a highly qualified and detail-oriented shopper versus an average or “quantity-driven” shopper.

Your final evaluation report reflects not only yourself, but also the reputation of the mystery shopping company. If you can take the extra time to make sure you are submitting a polished, accurate report, you can build your reputation with your mystery shopping company and be awarded better, higher paying shops. If you can remember the details, it can be a win for all!

When you begin mystery shopping for a company, the website will generally ask you to update your profile with vital information including your name, location, contact information, and other demographic statistical information. Sometimes, shoppers will receive a notice to update their personal profile. A shopper should strive to update personal informational every six months to increase the likelihood of obtaining more shops. Most companies are always in the process of expanding and increasing their shopper base and any changes can represent new and exciting shop opportunities.

With a few computer clicks, you can add or change demographic information such as including an additional zip code, city location, industry desirability, age or gender groups. Any change of these options could greatly increase your job listings each month. When you change your personal profile options, a whole new geographic or demographic territory might be opened to you.

If you have not noticed the nearest industrial areas to your home, now is the time to look at a local map, peruse the surrounding areas, and include those areas in your profile. Mystery shopping companies tend to offer jobs closer to the metropolitan districts, so if you live in a rural or urban area and are not receiving a plethora of jobs, you might want to change or add more demographic options to your profile.

With just a couple of changes to your profile, you might find more jobs and different types of shopping which could greatly increase your capabilities to earn extra money.

As a mystery shopper, you should take great satisfaction that you are truly helping to improve your community by providing a comprehensive customer service report.

Many companies often send surveys to their buyers after a purchase to gather information on their customer service. This will help to improve their services. As a mystery shopper, you usually submit a much more in-depth report, which usually includes a physical inspection of the premises, interaction with employees and customers, as well as feedback on the representative’s presentation.

Mystery shopping reports will usually ask you to focus on one employee and provide feedback on what their strengths and weaknesses that individual displayed. You will also be asked other questions about the maintenance of the community.

When companies compile all their mystery shopping reports, they will make changes in their policies and this benefits the community resources. For example, some companies have utilized recommendations from mystery shoppers on allowing potential residents to view photos of sample apartments in their leasing office that were previously not available for viewing until the following month. Previously, if a building was at a 100% resident occupancy, many leasing professionals would just tell a potential resident they were currently occupied and would not extend an invitation to visit. Now, more companies are offering prospects an invitation to visit despite having no vacancies.

Do not hesitate to offer suggestions in your report. Sometimes those are put into action and help to make your community a better place!

Most apartment shops will include a phone portion. This simply means that you will be calling your assigned apartment community prior to visiting.

You may or may not have a target agent. If so, the target agent’s name will be listed in your shopper notes. If you are not assigned a target agent, the notes will say that you can shop “Anyone”.

In cases where there is a specific target agent, you may not reach that person on the phone right away. This is where phone excuses are important so you can continue to make calls without being identified as a shopper.

What time does the office close?

This is an easy question that can be answered quickly. The leasing agent may ask if you are a resident and you can say yes to get them off the phone quickly.

Do not be afraid to be brief. You goal is to call back later and hopefully get your target agent.

Is this the apartment complex across from (fill in an area on the opposite side of town)?

You are asking this to get off the phone quickly. The leasing agent may try to ask you questions about whether you would be interested in their property, but you can thank them without answering their questions and say you really are looking for the other community.

Does your community have breed restrictions?

Most communities have breed restrictions when it comes to dogs as pets and some communities do not allow pets at all. Once they say that they do not allow pets or that they restrict certain breeds, you can say you own one of those breeds, thank them and end the call.

There are many more excuses that can be used, so have some fun with this. Your main objective is to complete calls without blowing your identity as a shopper.

You might receive an email from your mystery shopping representative that you have 24 hours to update your job status or be removed from the shop or system. However, there may be occasions where you missed reading that email or read it at the last minute and just like that, the website has locked you out of the system! Now you cannot update your shops and you might run into losing a job if you are not able to get your update to the follow-up representative until after the 24-hour cutoff. All of the work you did making telephone calls might be lost or worse yet, maybe you visited the shop and find the job has been removed!

Before you panic at the thought that you lost your jobs and did all that work for nothing, be sure you immediately respond to the mystery shopper representative on the latest update to request an extension as well as send an email to the website main address administrator. Sending an email to the follow-up person and the website administrator can help you avoid losing the job. Of course, your best bet is to always keep your follow-up representative up to date at least a day or two before the due date to ensure there is no lack of communication that might lead to your loss of jobs. If you do get locked out of the system, be sure you resend emails to the mystery shopper representative and the website administrator. Always remember the golden rule; communicate, communicate, and communicate some more!

If you shop for a company for an extended period, you are bound to exhaust your job opportunities if you use the same identity. Most companies have requirements on the number of locations you can shop more than once, but some may allow you to shop a property several times if you present yourself as an entirely new shopper.

Since some apartment management companies record information of visitors in their computer databank, which may include your name, email address, telephone number, or any other personal information in their system, this information might pop up to the employee as they input the information into the computer the next time you shop. Shopping the same location can clearly signal to an employee that you might be a mystery shopper.

However, if you are an experienced shopper, you will realize you should have new identities readily available so you can pick up new shops. If you have performed a shop before at the same location, it will sometimes be noted that you can shop again if you use a different name, telephone number and email address.

A mystery shopper can easily use a nickname or married name to change their identity and there are numerous free email websites to obtain a different address. For example, if your name is Elizabeth, change it and use a nickname such as Liz, Eliza, or any other closely associated name. Also, do not forget to sign up for new email addresses which allow you to obtain new identities. There are numerous websites that provide free addresses, such as Hotmail, Gmail, or Yahoo.

Follow these tips to have numerous identities to allow you to qualify for more shops!

Every once in awhile, you will have a full day of mystery shopping. This can be a good thing and you should be happy, as this give you an opportunity to earn a lot of money. Check with your scheduler to make sure you shop on the correct day; some shops cannot be done on the weekend while others can ONLY be done on the weekend. It’s important to adhere to the client’s specifications.

If you need help arranging your itinerary for the day, look at the times certain shops close. For instance, apartment shops usually stop showing their last apartment before sundown and banks close earlier than most retail stores. In addition, some shops have certain times that the shop must or must not be completed within.

Although you may think the best way to complete shops is by geographic route, remember that time is also a factor and it needs to be considered.

Are you ready to do mystery shopping in a new area? Maybe you are visiting friends or family and still need to do some shopping to keep you busy and make some money. We all know mystery shopping can be addictive! Follow the ideas here and you will find shops in any area you may find yourself.

Perhaps you did not know that you can look up addresses and zip codes on the United States Post Office site. This will help you have the information you need to find shops in new areas.

Simply go to: https://www.usps.com/ and click on “Quick Tools”. From there, click “Look Up a Zip Code”. You’ll enter an address and it will provide you with the zip code. The United Postal Service has zip code maps as well or you could even use Google to find the zip code area.

Once you have the zip code, simply open the Ellis page: http://epmsonline.com/ and go to where you select your shops. There you will find a place to select your shop area. You can then look by zip code or even look at the address where you are staying to find out what shops may be available in that area.

That was easy and now you are on your way to finding shops in different parts of the country!